We're a group of local leaders advocating for a high-quality education for all kids, regardless of their address.
06/10/2026
🚨 The new Long-Term Trend NAEP is out today.
Thirteen-year-olds, who were in elementary school when schools were closed during the pandemic, have continued to fall backwards in math scores and are stalled out in reading.
And while America’s nine-year-olds, who were on the cusp of kindergarten when the pandemic hit, are showing some signs of recovery, the percentage who say they read for fun has dropped to an all-time low of 37%.
What does it take to create lasting change?
For Andrew McEachin, senior research director at ETS, it's going to take enormous amounts of collaboration between advocates, policymakers, and researches to transform the way K-12 decision works across the country.
For our final Education Talk, we have Andrew McEachin, Senior Research Director at ETS.
In his talk, Andrew addresses the need for evolving assessments to support competency-based learning to help school systems move beyond seat time as the primary consideration for credit.
In the latest 50CAN Education Talk, CEO of Studium/High School Law Review Olivia Gross argues that teaching students to civilly disagree with each other is not only an essential life skill, but is vital to the future of American democracy.
Subscribe to our YouTube channel to watch Olivia's full talk.
In an increasingly partisan world, can we teach students to agreeably disagree with each other?
Olivia Gross is the founder and CEO of Studium/High School Law Review, a civics education program that uses constitutional law to teach students how to think critically and engage in civil disagreement.
Olivia is a University of Chicago graduate, where studies free speech as an undergraduate. She also writes on free speech, academic freedom, and the practice of constructive disagreement.
After decades of hearing about school choice, Keith Jacobs from Step Up for Students says we're entering a new era: the era of school customization, where families shop for the education services that meet the particular needs of their children.
Watch Keith's full Education Talk here on our YouTube channel.
05/20/2026
Charter schools are growing in popularity across the country, including in California.
In our new State of Educational Opportunity in California report, nearly three quarters of all parents surveyed said they supported charter schools (72%), which ranks in the top third nationally.
Additionally, schools of choice (which include charter schools) scored 9 points higher in the survey on overall satisfaction than traditional public schools.
In this week's new Ed Talk, Keith Jacobs, the Director of Provider Development for Step Up For Students, discusses how school choice and customization have changed education in the State of Florida.
A Tampa native, Keith spent 14 years in both K-12 district and charter education as both a traditional public school educator and administrator.
He is a former Teacher of the Year and Administrator of the Year nominee and serves as an education choice advocate, trainer and national speaker for education equity.
05/18/2026
California families are eager for more educational opportunities.
The State of Educational Opportunity in California survey found that:
-Support charter schools is rising (72% favor charter schools)
-Parents are skeptical that more money is the answer to better schools (Only 26% think more money needs to be spent per pupil)
-Tutoring and the demand for tutoring is booming California, as the state ranks 5th in both the number of students receiving tutoring AND the number of parents that want tutoring for their kids but don't yet have it.
05/15/2026
From major investments in charter schools to new scholarships for the next generation of teachers, Connecticut saw some BIG wins on the education front during the recently completed legislative session.
Here are just a few of the wins the ConnCAN team helped secure in 2026.